This was a companion blog to a radio show ("Meanwhile... Back at the Comic Book Shop") I did for three years in university. It doesn't exist anymore (*sob*), but I still read comics.

Saturday, October 03, 2009

Dr. Death and The Night of the Butcher, and Baker Street

Sandman Mystery Theatre: Dr. Death and The Night of the Butcher

(This is a terrible review made from random notes about a comic I read weeks ago.)

These stories are an improvement over the last couple I remember reading. The Night of the Butcher genuinely had me wondering what would happen next, and I was glad I wasn't reading the series as a monthly.

I liked that the villains in these stories weren't who you expected them to be. The earlier stories really seemed to telegraph which character appearing was the bad guy, so it was nice to be somewhat surprised. It also made the detective work done by both the Sandman and the police make more sense as they had to work to find out about the criminal, as opposed to just stumbling upon whatever.

I also enjoyed the Sandman's relationship with the police: hatred from one, partial trust from another. It sort of made sense in a real world sort of way.

Dian's reactions to what she experienced in this volume also seemed more "real" than what you get in most super hero comics. She doesn't immediately accept what was going on, and has to think about what she's going to do. At least days and possibly loner pass while the characters just think about things.

I'm not really sure what's going on with the art. The title page of the trade credits David Hornung as colourist, but the title pages for each story just say "art by," while the letterist is named. It's weird, but I guess it just means "pencils and ink" and my brain just melted.

While Guy Davis is an artist who's work I have enjoyed on the BPRD comics from Darkhorse, I preferred the art in the first story of this volume where Davis just did the layouts and Vince Locke did "art," whatever that means.

There's one part in the second story, which Davis illustrates it all himself, where a woman finds...something in her toilet. What is it? I have absolutely no idea. It's a bloody something. It's only a couple of pages later that someone says what it is, but even once you know it doesn't really help you identify the drawing.

The colouring!

(Yes this is important in this comic.)

The colouring in the first story is far better (and brighter!) than the second. It wasn't that noticeable while I read both stories, but flipping through the book there's a huge difference.

Colouring in the second story is really weird. People's skin tones just seem to be white. Entirely white, not coloured at all. It looks really strange and I wondered if it was a printing error or something. Considering the colourist was supposed to be the same for both stories in this volume, I really have to wonder what happened.

Baker Street

This is an earlier Guy Davis work, and it's...not so good. Considering there don't seem to be that many comics about the punk scene in general, and even fewer where there is any actual knowledge of the scene involved, it seems weird that Davis, who apparently was in the punk scene, would do something like this weird mashup of Victoriana and punks. I only managed to read the first issue of the trade cause I didn't think it was that good.